Untitled
by Harbinger1
Summary: What would happen if someone who hated Ranma was put inside Ranma's Head? By an author who knows little of the series, at that? Don't hate me, please.
1. Prologe

Prologue  
  
He crawled into bed in a bad mood. He couldn't believe he had actually read that story. The sun was well up and he had spent the last few hours reading what he hoped would be a good Ranma darkfic, but it had the waffiest ending he had ever had the misfortune to read.  
  
"What's up with all this happy ending crap?" he asked one of his posters. He wasn't surprised when Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope, Jamie Madrox or the Monoxide Child refused to answer. He sighed disgustedly. He had wasted all of that time reading that story when he could have been out hitting a bowl with his buds, or getting with his girl. But no, all of that time that could have been better spent elsewhere was wasted reading a story that should not have ended that way.  
  
He scratched his goatee and stared at the ceiling. It was gonna be a bad night at work, thanks to that damned story. One bad story usually ends up ruining his whole week. It was a crappy way to spend his last day off. He growled deep in his throat as he felt sleep creep upon him.  
  
"Fuckin' shitty ass waffy ending," he muttered to no-one. "Wish I coulda done that, it woulda turned out better." He couldn't write a Ranma fic if his life depended on it. He didn't know much of anything about the series except what he had read in fics and what few episodes he's seen, add to that he didn't like the series in the least, but the darkfics were good because they usually killed off the characters he found truly annoying. He fully embraced slumber with those disgruntled thoughts floating through his mind.  
  
*****  
  
Coincidentally, one of the few remaining spirits powerful enough to take corporeal form just happened to be passing by when it caught the distinct odor of displeasure pouring out of the second floor of a house in a small town in south-central Virginia. It had no earthly reason to be passing by on that morning, but it was and we're not going to ask any of those annoying questions that pop up from time to time to question plot devices, now are we? Good, now where was I?  
  
Ah yes, the spirit followed it's senses and found the source of the massive amounts of negative energy in the form of a sleeping young man. The spirit looked at him and was disturbed. It hadn't felt this much undirected anger and hate in millennium. It didn't know if it should allow the man to live. It thought about it for a moment, then decided that so much undirected negative energy was not to be allowed.  
  
He reached an ethereal arm into the young man's chest to stop his heart when the man somehow repelled it. It clutched at it's burned arm and looked at the young man differently. It tried again and got the same results. It pondered this quandary for a moment and tried different avenues, all of which failed.  
  
It was a reasonably intelligent spirit, and it seemed to it that something had to have sparked the man's ire. It decided to try to find out what it was. It looked around the room, trying to find the source. The room was fairly large and cluttered to all corners. It had two beds, a large chair with two table flanking it, a computer desk, an entertainment center and just about everything else a man in his early twenties would think he needed.  
  
The television was cold and looked like it hadn't been used in quite awhile, so it ignored that. The large chair in front of the entertainment center had a book sitting on it's arm. There was a light coating of dust on both, so that wasn't the source either. The spirit didn't know a whole lot about the humans of the current era, but it knew enough to get by. For instance, it knew what a computer was, but it's proficiency in one's use was less than that of a third grader. It did know enough to be able to check what the young man was doing before he stopped.  
  
Ah, the spirit thought, so that's the source. It had found it. Even though it was looking at the monitor, it could still feel the hate the man had directed toward this document. It had left a residue.  
  
If the spirit had a face, a wide grin would have split it as it thought of something completely delicious to do to the young, rage filled young man. It turned toward the sleeping form and started to concentrate all of it's energies. Slowly, ever so slowly, the young man's form started to become indistinct.  
  
After awhile, the sheets that had covered the man listlessly sank back onto the bed as he disappeared. The spirit was exhausted. It had used more energy in this one act than it had in the last century. It would need awhile to recuperate, which would give the young man time to vent his pent up rage and hate on those who had caused it. The spirit liked this solution because it didn't kill the young man, but it got him out of the way so his energies wouldn't explode and destroy him and everything around him.  
  
It made one final scan of the room, seemed to sigh and then left. It needed some rest. 


	2. Part I Chapter 1: A Strange Day

Part I  
  
There are More Thing in Heaven  
  
And on Earth Than are Dreamed  
  
Of in Your Philosophy  
  
Chapter 1  
  
A Strange Day  
  
"Wake up, boy," a voice demanded. It was his father's voice and on this particular morning, it was more annoying than usual.  
  
"Alright, Pop," he replied groggily. It had been a bad night. His dreams had been plagued by a strange looking man, an American man, Ranma was sure. The man had chased Ranma through myriad dreamscapes, and he couldn't get away from him, no matter how hard he pushed himself. In the end, the stranger had caught up and embraced Ranma. That was when he woke up.  
  
"Get off your lazy butt, boy," Genma's voice demanded a second before he kicked his son and sent him sprawling.  
  
"I'm up, I'm up already," Ranma said, standing. His head had started hurting and his thought processes (what little there was of that) were weird. "Can't you see I'm up?" At least the old man hadn't poured water on him. He truly hated being woken up that way.  
  
He shuffled past his father and made his way to the bathroom. Seeing that it was, for once, unoccupied, he hurriedly locked the door. He looked at himself in the mirror and seemed to see the visage of the stranger from his dream superimposed over his own face. He shook his head and filled the sink with hot water. He splashed his face liberally with the nearly scalding liquid and again looked at himself in the mirror. Again, he seemed to see something, only this time, it was his eyes that seemed to change. They went from their normal color to a deep brown and then back again. This was going to be a strange day.  
  
*****  
  
Somewhere, underground, a dark man was casting a dark spell for a dark purpose. Energies of the deepest black swirled around the area surrounding his lair, disturbing small children and animals. The tattered ends of the energy could be felt two blocks away and if someone would have followed them, it would have led to the door of an English pastry shop.  
  
The energies led through the door, past the display cases of éclairs, and doughnuts and other such sundries, and into the back room. Here the energies would seem to have nowhere to go, but this was not their origin, no. Down a secret stairway, down deep into the bowels of the earth the energies led. At the foot of the stairs, the energies took the only rout open to them, a long, dark and rough hewn corridor. At the end of that corridor stood an old, iron bound oaken door. Beyond this door was the origin of the energies.  
  
The chamber was circular and adequately lit with torches. In the center of the chamber, a circle was inscribed in blood, and runes of arcane and eldritch origin were drawn therein as well. A man stood outside the circle, chanting and waving his arms in ways that the human arm shouldn't be able to move.  
  
At the crescendo of the chant, a small rip in the fabric of reality opened and small creature jumped through. It was small, somewhere around a foot in height, with gray scaly skin and black bat-like wings. It had a long prehensile tail, and it's head was elongated with nasty looking horns, large pointed ears, and viciously pointed teeth. It looked around the summoning chamber, paying particular attention to the circle inscribed on the ground. It saw no flaw in it and it was not happy. It glared up at it's temporary master.  
  
"What is thy wish, master?" it demanded. The imp was not the brightest of the denizens of the netherworld, but it knew the old bargains and it knew the old laws. It was bound to serve this human until it was either slain or it accomplished it's task, whichever came first.  
  
"You know that which I seek, Ickzil, that is why I summoned you specifically." The man had a deep voice that reverberated through the chamber. He was cloaked from head to foot in a voluminous robe, who's hood covered his face completely.  
  
The imp, Ickzil by name, bared it's teeth at the human. "I knew it was not a coincidence that it was I who was summoned, master. If I hadst but known what it was thou sought, I wouldst not have come."  
  
The man spoke two sharp words and the imp screamed in agony. "Do not take that tone with me again, demonling. I've the power to utterly erase you from existence and I want you to remember that." He kept the spell going for several more minutes and all the while Ickzil writhed on the ground screaming. After an indeterminate amount of time, the summoner ceased the spell and the imp spat a wad of bloody phlegm onto the ground.  
  
"I shall not forget, master. Thy display has been duly noted. Have I thine leave, master, to begin thy quest?"  
  
"Go and do not return without it, or information leading to it." With that, the imp jumped into the air and disappeared in a flash of sulfurous smoke. The summoner looked at the spot the imp vanished into and laughed a deep, rich and utterly evil laugh.  
  
*****  
  
Breakfast was well underway when he finally came downstairs. Everyone was there, eating the meal that Kasumi had prepared. It looked appetizing, but Ranma wasn't hungry. He sat at the table and looked at his food, his mind a million miles away. He felt as though he should be expecting something, something important, but he didn't know what that was. In his vague state, he was not sure he cared.  
  
Kasumi eyed him with concern as he pushed his food around with a chopstick. He didn't look well to her, and she worried about him. She had heard him thrashing around last night while he slept, and it had scared her a little. Nabiki looked at him in the same apathetic manner in which she looked at everyone, her thoughts veiled behind that impenetrable mask. Soun and Genma ignored the boy as they continued to shovel food into their mouths.  
  
Akane looked at him with suspicion, but that was nothing new. She, as well, had heard him during the night, but her mind conjured up much different images than Kasumi's did. Her mind told her he was having those dreams that one shouldn't talk about because of their content. Not nightmares, no, but the other kind. Those thoughts fueled her always simmering temper.  
  
Ranma saw the concern and ignored it. He saw Nabiki's impassive mask, and ignored that, too. He saw Akane's mistrust filled look and from out of nowhere an anger unlike any he's ever felt boiled up inside of him. He wanted to strike her, he wanted to destroy the table, he wanted to lash out at anything, everything. Most of all, he wanted to see these peoples bodies piled at his feet in a pool of spreading blood.  
  
Some of what he suddenly felt must have shown on his face because Akane blanched and scooted back, Kasumi looked ready to faint and even Nabiki showed frank shock. Soun and Genma continued to eat, ignoring all else. His surprise shocked the anger away, and he jumped up.  
  
"I gotta go," he muttered and hurriedly left the room. They all looked after him as he almost ran towards the dojo, most with utter shock on their faces and Soun and Genma with greedy looks as they realized that Ranma hadn't eaten and there'd be more for them.  
  
*****  
  
Inside the dojo, Ranma stood very still and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't know what had happened back there. All he knew was that one moment was fine, vague but fine, and the next he was in the midst of a murderous rage. For a moment there, he knew the utter beauty of that rage and he was afraid.  
  
He didn't know where the anger had come from. He knew it had come from inside of him, but it hadn't come from him. It was as if someone else had poured their hate into him for a moment, before his surprise had shut off the flow. From the torrent that he felt for that moment, he felt as if there was no end to the rage and hatred of the other. That scared him all the more.  
  
He felt that the anger had left some of itself behind, a residue that would not be easy to rid himself of. With that thought, he did the only thing he could think of. He practiced his martial arts. He went from one form to another, one routine to the next in the hopes that his sweat and labor would wash the residue away. When it was almost time to go to school, he stopped and stood in the center of the dojo with his hands on his knees, panting. He felt better, more himself and he was confident that he had gotten rid of that residue.  
  
He was wrong. 


	3. Part I Chapter 2: Rage Released

Chapter 2  
  
Rage Released  
  
He left the dojo in a much better mood, but since he didn't want to offer any explanations he didn't have, he left through the back of the house and made his way to school that way. For once, he didn't miss walking with Akane. Usually, even if he didn't admit it to anyone, he liked to walk to school with her, even in her worst moods. It was something he kind of looked forward to. But not now. Now he felt he wanted to be alone, very alone. It was a very un-Ranma like thought, but he gave it not a second thought.  
  
He walked towards school with his mind wandering. His feet took him there automatically as his mind wandered down avenues that weren't all Ranma's. He didn't notice the difference. Most of the other's avenues were very similar to Ranma's and since he didn't expect to find any variations in his mind, he took no notice of them. Which was good, in the other's opinion. The other was still in the process of waking up, and didn't yet have the ability to speak, or think clearly. It was pure impulse now, and would remain that way for awhile yet.  
  
The avenues that Ranma's mind took were the usual ones. Down one, he saw his various fights and how he won them. Down another, he saw his various relationship troubles and he could see no way out of those. Down yet another, were the vague and distant memories of his childhood. For some reason, he strayed down this lane the most. The other was curious and wanted to know more of the person he had come to inhabit.  
  
Soon, too soon in the other's opinion, the gates of the Furinkan appeared before him and he entered the school, going about his day as if nothing had happened earlier that morning. In the courtyard, he saw the batter and bruised bodies of Akane's other suitors. He had arrived not long after her, it would seem. He chuckled, and unknown to him, it was a malicious chuckle. He entered the cool darkened corridors of the school and forgot all about strange angers and wrathful residues. For the moment.  
  
*****  
  
Ickzil looked at the pony-tailed boy as he walked into the school. There was something dark about that boy that made the imp pause in it's search. There was something happing within the boy that sparked the demon's interest. It might be a good thing to watch this one for awhile and see what happens.  
  
It's master might have been knowledgeable, but he had been rather stupid when he gave Ickzil his orders. He hadn't placed a time table upon the imp, which meant that Ickzil could have taken his own sweet time about the search and the human would have died of old age before he returned. Ickzil pondered doing this, but decided against it. The summoner knew the agony runes and if he knew that spell, then it was possible that he knew other, more powerful spells as well. It didn't want to take that chance, and besides, it hated the way the human world was now. It much preferred it's infernal home to this realm anymore.  
  
It was going to go and find the blasted item it had hidden a millennium ago as quickly as possible when it sensed the malign energies the boy was emanating. They were weak, not much stronger than a newly formed imp's energies, but they were growing. They had a different taste than any other energies it had encountered before, and since it seemed to be popular among the various worlds of the multiverse recently, it had encountered a variety of energies with which to compare.  
  
Yes, it thought, let's see where this one leads. Maybe he'll be fun? Maybe he'll make a good recruit for my other masters? Let's see what happens.  
  
*****  
  
The first half of Ranma's day at school passed pretty much as usual, except for the fact that Akane avoided him more than usual. He didn't really notice. His mind continued to stray, and he felt no differently than he did the day before, except for the one spike of irrational anger he felt at getting a failing grade on an English test. He felt as though he should have passed it with flying colors, but he knew he was going to fail it. He couldn't speak English very well, and even the teacher knew it. He shrugged off the anger and went about his day as usual.  
  
The only other event worth note that happened during the day happened during lunch. He was sitting outside under a tree, enjoying the relative solitude he was granted. Akane sat on the other side of the tree, near him, but away from him. He didn't mind. The other liked it as well, he didn't want any unnecessary distractions while he continued to regain consciousness.  
  
Ranma sat there, nearly napping when he heard a voice he was hoping he wouldn't hear. He heard Tatewaki Kuno somewhere near, but he wasn't close. He could hear his voice, but not the words, which was probably good because usually when Kuno spoke, Ranma got mad. He hoped Kuno would just stay where he was, and not come near, but he knew it was a pointless hope. Hell, even the other knew it was a useless waste of energy to hope that.  
  
Sure enough, within minutes he heard Kuno's cultured, and urbane voice coming from the other side of the tree. Akane's side of the tree. He ignored what he said. He had to. Neither of them wanted to deal with Kuno then, but the other suspected a confrontation was eminent. The other didn't want the confrontation because the more hate it fed to Ranma, the longer it would take to awaken. He wanted to be awake soon and if Ranma and Kuno got into it, he knew it would take just that much longer to become fully conscious.  
  
"Shut up, Kuno and go away," the voice was Akane's and like a match sparked in a gas filled room, Ranma's own anger was burning. The other had forgotten that Ranma had his own angers, and he was glad he wouldn't have to feed Ranma too much of his own.  
  
Ranma jumped up and was on the other side of the tree in an instant. There stood Kuno, in his outdated clothing, carrying a bokken as if it were an actual katana. Kuno turned to look at Ranma and sneered contemptuously at him. Ranma's anger grew a little, but the other didn't add to it yet. He wanted to see how angry Ranma would get, and it was curious how much of his earlier rage was still left.  
  
"Hello, Saotome," Kuno said. "I was wondering where you were hiding." He had a way of speaking that made even the most innocuous of greetings an insult. Steadily Ranma's anger grew. The other was beginning to enjoy this.  
  
"Go away, Kuno," Ranma said tightly. He had a tight reign on his anger, but his grip was slipping, slightly.  
  
"Saotome, I noticed that you did not escort Akane Tendo to school today, but instead you slinked in after she did. Is that any way to treat the woman who should be my fiancé?" Akane looked at Ranma slightly fearfully, but the look she gave Kuno would have melted iron.  
  
That did it. Even the other's patience with this idiotic fop had been worn away with those two sentences. He released all of the rage at his disposal, which was a lot. Ranma flew into action, his face a murderous mask of hate. A single punch to Kuno's stomach sent the older boy flying, to land in a sprawled heap a few feet away.  
  
Ranma stood there, breathing heavily, even though he had barely exerted himself. Hatred poured out of him in almost palpable waves. The other was almost brought to consciousness early by the combined anger of the two. It wouldn't do to have him awaken too early.  
  
*****  
  
Cologne dropped the knife she had been cutting carrots with as she felt the unimaginable amounts of rage. She had never experienced anything like it before, not once during her long, long life. Her blood turned to ice as the hate continued. It hadn't grown, but it stayed constant and that worried her all the more.  
  
Her thoughts turned to her one concern and she whispered one word.  
  
"Granddaughter."  
  
*****  
  
Happosai almost fell from his perch outside the window of a women's locker room when the waves of hate and rage washed over him. His lust for a sight of the women in the locker room was instantly washed away. He looked around, afraid for the first time in he didn't know how long. He had felt hatred like this only once before, when he was young man. He had managed to banish a demon back to the netherworld and the waves of hate it emanated were similar to this, weaker, a lot weaker, but similar.  
  
"Oh dear," he whispered as he jumped to a nearby roof top. He started off in the direction of the anger, hoping it wasn't another demon. He didn't know if he had the strength to fight it.  
  
*****  
  
Ickzil was knocked out of the tree he was perched on when the anger washed over him. It was stronger than it had imagined. It didn't think even it's demon masters were that strong. It grew terribly afraid, but at the same time, it was insanely drawn towards it. It didn't know what to do, run or stay and show itself. Instead of either, it went with it's natural instinct. It hid and watched.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma stood there staring at Kuno as he slowly got to his feet. That blow had hurt him more than he would admit. He looked at Saotome and was shocked at what he saw. The younger boy stood with his fists clenched at his sides and his clothes billowed around him as if in a breeze. His eyes, which usually showed only mild annoyance and very, very rarely a flash of anger, had changed colors. They were now a deep brown and were pools of liquid hate. Kuno found himself taking an involuntary step back. He knew he was the most skilled swordsman in the school and had even fought Ranma to a draw once or twice, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he engaged this Ranma in battle, he would not only loose the fight, but most likely his life as well.  
  
Luckily, Kuno wasn't the one to stop Ranma from fighting, and thus losing face. The small creature that the Tendos showed deference to, Happosai, he thought it's name was, came careening into the school yard.  
  
Happosai quickly surveyed the scene and almost doubled over at the unholy amounts of anger and rage and hatred that poured like a veritable flood out of his student's son. Kuno was standing, he could see, but barely and stupidly reaching for his bokken. Akane still sat with her back against the tree, but now it looked more like she wanted to become a part of the tree instead of merely using it for support. And Ranma, to Happosai's eye, that saw more than even he wanted it to, looked like he was on fire. An aura of pure hate surrounded the boy in it's black halo. He could see the grass at Ranma's feet was flattened by it, and the boy's hair was standing almost straight up. He almost looked like something out of one of those stupid cartoons the TV is always showing, the ones where the heroes and villains fly around and destroy mountains.  
  
Ranma took a step towards Kuno and Happosai jumped in front of him. He immediately knew what it was like to stare death in the eye. That face, which Happosai would have sworn on his life could never look like this, promised nothing but pain, agony and eventually, death. He swallowed hard.  
  
"Now, look boy," he said a bit nervously. Ranma looked down at him, and continued his march towards Kuno. Happosai shrank a little. Then he realized what he was doing. How could he, Happosai, cringe in front of this stupid, young pup like that? He, Happosai, who had fought more times than Ranma could in his lifetime. He, Happosai, who had defeated enemies that would make Ranma's hair turn white. He, Happosai, who had once (or twice or more, it always changed in the telling) slept with Cologne, cringe from this ignorant little upstart?  
  
"Now, look here, boy," he demanded. This time, Ranma stopped and turned the full force of his gaze on the little creature at his feet. "Now don't go looking at me like that, you young upstart. I'll not have any of your foolishness."  
  
Ranma's foot moved faster than Happosai thought it would as he tried to kick the aged, shrunken master. But Happosai was the faster. He moved to the side and the foot barely missed him. The wind of it's passage caused his black, ninja-like outfit to ruffle. Happosai sprang forward and slammed the back of Ranma's other knee. The leg buckled and Ranma fell to his knee with his one leg outstretched in front of him.  
  
Happosai smiled smugly. His smile disappeared a moment later when Ranma's fist clipped the end of his nose. He jumped back and cupped his nose with both hands. That stung! Ranma stood slowly and turned fully to face the old man. Then, without any warning, he exploded into motion. He launched attack after attack at the small creature. Happosai dodged all of the attacks with ease. Although Ranma was faster than usual, and hit a helluva lot harder, he was clumsy and his attacks easily anticipated.  
  
During the attacks, Happosai taunted the boy. That was probably a mistake on his part, but hindsight is twenty-twenty. Every time a punch or kick missed, the anger emanating from Ranma grew. Happosai was afraid that it would set the grass on fire if it didn't stop soon. He knew he had to stop him somehow, and a glimmer of an idea occurred to the old man.  
  
He reached into a pouch concealed on the inside of his shirt and pulled out a small packet of powder. He jumped and threw the packet into Ranma's face. White powder flew everywhere as Ranma's fist intercepted it. The powder fell on everything, and even flew into Ranma's eyes as Happosai had hoped it would. He stepped back, shaking his head, trying to clear his sight. When he got enough of it out to see, he opened his eyes to see Happosai flying towards his face with one tiny fist out forward. His fist glinted slightly in the sunlight. Brass knuckles!  
  
Happosai hit Ranma between the eyes with his knuckles and watched with satisfaction as he fell to the ground. It was a dirty trick, he knew, using flour like that, but when you've lived as long as Happosai had, you learned that playing fair wasn't always the best way to win.  
  
All of this took less than two minutes, and no-one in the school seemed to have noticed, which was probably a good thing. Happosai turned towards Akane, and saw she was looking behind him with a stunned look on her face. He turned and almost fell over. Ranma sat up and looked at Happosai with those same hate filled eyes.  
  
"Nice try, old man," he said in perfect English. Happosai was shocked. He didn't even know Ranma knew how to speak that much English. "You should have hit me harder than that. A lot harder." Again he spoke in flawless English. If his teacher had been there, he might have reconsidered that failing grade. Ranma slowly stood and dusted himself off. "Playtime's over, now."  
  
Happosai stepped back in a defensive crouch. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew he could beat the boy with all the tricks at his disposal, he just hoped Ranma would live through it. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to find out.  
  
Akane rushed past him and ran up to Ranma. She used her own not inconsiderable strength, and the momentum of the run to push her slap just that much harder. The sound of her hand hitting his face reverberated throughout the school yard. His head snapped back and his eyes closed. To Happosai's eyes, the aura of rage surrounding the boy winked out in an instant. He heaved a sigh of relief.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. She was shocked, scared, and angry, all rolled up into one. She continued her verbal tirade for several more minutes while Ranma's head remained back and his eyes closed. She called him everything she could think of, and when she ran out of Japanese insults, she threw in the few English ones she knew as well.  
  
After she started repeating herself, Ranma's head finally came back down. He opened his eyes, and she was relieved to see his eyes had returned to normal. He stared at her with a confused expression on his face and then he looked past her and saw Happosai. He looked behind him and saw Kuno leaning heavily on his bokken looking back with a look of concentration on his face, as well as a slight touch of fear.  
  
"A-Akane," he said. His voice was hoarse and child-like. "Wha-what happened?" Then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell into her. She caught him and gently lowered him to the ground. Tears stood in her eyes as she looked at him. 


	4. Part I Chapter 3: The Sleeper Awakens

Chapter 3  
  
The Sleeper Awakens  
  
Kuno rushed forwards as Ranma fell. He knelt beside him, looking at Akane. He had never seen anything like what had just happened, and he wanted to know just exactly what that was. He gently touched her shoulder and she looked up. He saw the tears she shed over this degenerate, insane boy and he felt something inside of him cringe.  
  
"Go back into the school and tell them that Ranma has fallen ill," he said kindly. "I'll have Sansuke bring the car around and I'll take all three of you to your home."  
  
She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and gratitude on her face. In her eyes, tears remained unshed, but the old determination that made her so attractive and desirable returned.  
  
"Thank you," she said simply before she jumped up and ran towards the school.  
  
He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial for Sansuke. He told the little ninja what he told Akane to tell the school officials and told him to bring the car around immediately. He hung up and looked back at Ranma to find Happosai standing over him. The old man looked old indeed, in that instant, and Kuno wondered how he knew to show up like he did. There was much about what was going on that Kuno didn't know, but he was sure as hell going to find out.  
  
He was going to start by asking the little old man some questions, but Akane came running out of the school and he heard Sansuke pull up behind him. Damn, he thought. He guess the time for questions and answers would come later.  
  
He helped the little ninja place Ranma gently into the back seat of the car and he sat on one side of him while Akane sat cradling his head in her lap. Happosai joined Sansuke in the front seat and kept looking back at Ranma with concern and confusion plainly etched into the wrinkles of his face.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma walked down a long corridor. He had never seen the corridor before, but that didn't mean anything. He's seen a lot of strange things in his dreams, and this one didn't seem any different. At the end of the hallway was a door. It was an ordinary door, cheaply made and well worn, with a red metal sign on it. The sign was rectangular and depicted a bat, it also had some writing on it, but since it was in English, Ranma couldn't read it.  
  
Having nothing else to do, he opened the door and stepped into the room. He entered a fairly large bedroom that was as cluttered as a seldom entered storage room. There were two beds, one on each wall near the windows and a large chair sitting in front of a sealed fireplace. The chair had two tables flanking it with a lamp on each table and an ashtray on the chair's right side. There was an entertainment center from which blared a music unlike any Ranma had heard. It had sharp beats and a lot of bass, accompanied by the rhythmic shouting of the lyrics, which were in English. He thought it strange that his dream had so much English in it when he could barely say anything in it, let alone read it or understand it.  
  
Standing by the bed farthest from the door was the stranger who had chased him in his earlier dream. He was tall, standing a little over six feet, with broad, stooped shoulders. His hair was bleached blond and shaved along the sides and back, leaving only the patch on the top, which came almost to his shoulders. He wore a black t-shirt of some band, Ranma suspected it was the band who's "music" was currently blaring, and baggy black jeans.  
  
He turned when Ranma opened the door and looked at his guest. He had deep brown eyes and a long goatee that had blonde, red, brown and gray in it naturally. He wore glasses and didn't seem to like to smile too much. On his right forearm was a tattoo of an odd blue-skinned creature holding a flame. He waved a hand and the entertainment center and the volume of the music went down considerably. It was strange because the man didn't have a remote in his hand.  
  
"Sorry about the music," he said in English, "but it's the only way I can stay calm under these circumstances." It didn't surprise Ranma that he could understand the stranger. This was a dream, after all. Ranma just stared at him, not knowing what to say or do.  
  
"Would you like to have seat?" The man waved a hand at one of the beds and sat down in the chair. It looked like a very comfortable chair. He reached into a pocket and extracted a pack of cigarettes. He lit one and exhaled a long streamer of smoke. "Or you could just stand there like an idiot. It matters not. I brought you here so we could talk and come to an understanding, not to make you comfortable."  
  
"What do ya mean, `brought'?" This was an odd dream indeed.  
  
"I first feel I should apologize for what happened earlier today. It was my fault you felt like killing everyone during breakfast, and it was my fault you tried to kill Kuno. But that English test score was bullshit, though, and I will not apologize for your ineptitude."  
  
Ranma had never had a dream like this before. It seemed at the same time real and surreal. He must have been sick or something and was having one of those fever dreams. But this dream man insulting him was pushing it. It was still his dream and he would not be insulted in it.  
  
"Look, pal," he said, in Japanese which it didn't surprise him to know that the stranger understood him. "I don't know how you know about that stuff earlier, but you had best shut up about me being inept at anything."  
  
The man's eyes, which had been fairly apathetic before, now went dead cold. He raised the hand not holding a cigarette and clenched his fist. Ranma felt as if the very air around him had turned solid and was crushing him. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't move. He started to panic.  
  
"Do not try to order me around in my house, boy," the stranger said calmly. "In here, I have the power of a god, and I'll not suffer your insolence one little bit. I hate this shit, and if I find the bastard who put me here, I will kill him. Slowly. Now, do you suppose we could forgo all the posturing and insults and have a civilized conversation? Hmm?"  
  
Ranma nodded his head vigorously. He had started to come to the realization that this wasn't a normal dream at all. He didn't know what it was, but it was no normal dream. The air let him go and he fell to his knees, coughing. He stood up shakily, glared at his "host" and sat down on one of the beds.  
  
"There, now that's better." His host had seemed to be back to the way he was when Ranma entered. He had no idea if that was normal or not, but he didn't think it mattered. "Those irrational episodes of rage you felt earlier were my fault, I'm afraid. I was just starting to wake up and my anger got away from me. I wasn't awake enough to control it. I have very violent impulses, you see, but my self control allows me to sublimate them and no harm comes to anyone. You, unfortunately, do not seem to possess the same self-control."  
  
Ranma bristled at the unintentional insult and the man snapped a glare over him that made Ranma swallow his pique and continue to sit and listen.  
  
"I'm not from anywhere near here, and of all the things I could want, this is one of the things I want the least. I do not like you, Ranma Saotome. I do not like you, or Genma, or Soun, or Akane, or Kuno, or Ryoga, or Kodachi or Ukyou, or Shampoo, or Happosai, or Cologne, or Mousse, or even Sansuke, for that matter. Nabiki, I have some respect for, though. She's manipulative and pretty ruthless. I admire those qualities, and I can't think of anyone who doesn't like Kasumi. She's sweet and kind-hearted and nice to a fault. Unfortunately, she's a victim waiting to happen.  
  
"Please stop thinking of this as a dream. I assure you, it is not, although you can only come into my home when you are asleep. Containing the combined power of my anger and yours earlier today took it's toll on you. You aren't built to house that much hate. Ah, but I'm a bad host. Would you like something to drink?" He seemed to jump from subject to subject randomly, but there was an awful intelligence behind his eyes. He opened the door to a mini-fridge that was under the right hand table and extracted a bottle of soda. "I have water, if you prefer something not carbonated."  
  
Ranma politely refused his offer and the man shrugged. "Each to his own," he said. He opened the soda and drank deep of it. This was going beyond anything Ranma ever wanted to experience. He supposed this must be like when you go insane. He heaved a forlorn sigh and tried to resign himself to his fate at a mental institute.  
  
"Your not going insane," the stranger said. "You are as sane as you ever were, whereas I am not quite sane and never will be, but that's neither here nor there. Listen well, because I'm only going to say this once. Your family and friends are going to want an explanation for what happened earlier and I'm going to give you the only one I have. Are you willing to listen?" Ranma nodded. He really had no choice.  
  
"Good. Now as far as I can tell, I've been put inside of your head. I'm not from his world, or any world near this one. No, I'm not some ancient spirit or alien from Planet X or anything like that. I'm as human as you, just from a different Earth is all. Something or someone decided to get rid of me for some reason and they felt this was suitable punishment. I swear I'll kill whoever did this to me. The gods will have to have mercy on the sonuvabitch because I sure as hell won't." Ranma could feel him getting angry. The hate came off of him in waves that made Ranma's stomach turn. "I really shouldn't get myself worked up like this," he said and the anger disappeared instantly. "I can do nothing about it until I get back. I guess you could say that you're possessed. It's accurate enough, but I wouldn't recommend trying to have me exorcised. It wouldn't be pleasant for anyone involved." He sighed, took his glasses off and rubbed a hand over his face.  
  
"Gods, I just want to go home. I hate it here, and that hate seems to grow by the minute. But I've been sent here for a reason, so I guess I gotta play my part in this upcoming drama. I just wish I knew what it was, and who was writing it." He sat back and waved his hand at the stereo again and the music started blaring again, louder than before.  
  
It seemed the more Ranma was around the stranger, the more he understood English because he could now understand the singer of the song. It was not a happy song. It was about a guy who had killed his little brother and then dug up his body from the graveyard to try to bring him back to life. He shuddered at the implied message of the song. He looked at the stranger and saw that he was silently singing along with the song. How could he stand to listen to this stuff, let alone sing along with it?  
  
The stranger's head snapped up and he snapped his fingers. All sound in the room ceased, even sounds that Ranma wasn't aware of went silent. He looked at Ranma and Ranma saw he was genuinely sorry for inflicting his favored form of entertainment on his guest. He grinned apologetically and shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, sorry about that," he said, "not many people in America like this group and it takes a certain mindset to really enjoy it. Again, I apologize. Like I said, it's the only way I can stay calm right now.  
  
"I imagine that the others have gathered in the Tendo's dining room and are discussing what happened and various whacked out theories on what caused it. Happosai might have sensed a little of me during the fight. I think I spoke to him, I'm not sure. I guess I should let you get back so that we can get on with the question and answer portion of tonight's festivities. Now that I'm fully awake, I'll be able to speak directly into your mind, and when the need arrives, I can take control of you. Please note, it's when I think the need is sufficient. Or when I feel like it. I'm a pretty fickle man, I've been told."  
  
He stood and waved his hand at the door. It swung silently open and the corridor outside it beckoned. Ranma stood and started towards the door when the stranger stopped him. Ranma turned and saw the man standing behind him with his hand outstretched in greeting.  
  
"I'm called Daniel," he said. Ranma looked at the proffered hand and then looked back at Daniel. He took the hand and shook it.  
  
"Ranma," he said, slightly sullenly. He didn't like this, not at all.  
  
Together, they went out the door and it swung shut behind them. They started down the hallway side by side. The younger man with his head down and his hands in his pockets, the older one with his head high and an enigmatic grin on his face. 


	5. Part I Chapter 4: Questions, Answers an...

Chapter 4  
  
Questions, Answers and Demons  
  
Ickzil sat on a light post across the street from the Tendo dojo. It had followed the car driven by the little ninja who took orders from the young man who thought he was in a time far removed from this one. It had kept back because it recognized the small man who had stopped the one called Ranma from killing the odd young man. It's demon lord had described him in great detail to all of it's minions and Ickzil had remembered. It was the same man, who many, many years earlier, had banished it's demon lord back to the netherworld. The lord had not been happy. As Ickzil recalls it, the lord and slaughtered almost half of it's followers in it's fit of pique. It smiled at the memories.  
  
If the old man had been strong enough to banish a demon lord, then he was certainly strong enough to destroy the likes of Ickzil. It sighed as it waited. It would have to be patient and it wasn't very good at being patient.  
  
Deciding that patience never paid off in the long run, Ickzil cloaked it's presences as best it could and flew closer to one of the downstairs windows to hear what was being said.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma opened his eyes and looked at the familiar ceiling of the room he shared with his father. He was tired, and his whole body ached. He felt like he had fought for a week straight without a break. He sat up with a groan and looked around. Night was falling, he could see, and no one else was in the room. Had it all been a dream? Was he really possessed by someone from some other Earth?  
  
Yes, Daniel said in his mind. Ranma jumped. Before you ask, I'm privy to your thoughts, yet you are not to mine. Maybe it's because I know so much of you and you know nothing of me. Mayhap the bond will work both ways after we've been together long enough. Mayhap.  
  
"Great," Ranma said sourly. He didn't like this. It wasn't the first time he had that thought, and it wouldn't be the last, either. He stood up and staggered to the door. The hallway outside was dark as he stepped into it. Daniel suggested stealth and caution, but Ranma ignored him. It was sort of easy to ignore a voice in his head.  
  
He entered the dining room less than a minute later and all conversation stopped at his appearance. They were all there, Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, Kuno, Sansuke, Soun, Genma, and Happosai. They sat around the table and stared at him. He felt a flush creep up his face and he also felt a small spike of anger come from Daniel.  
  
"Uh, hi," he said uneasily to everyone. Kasumi and Sansuke were putting a bandage around Kuno's stomach from where Ranma punched him. The area being bandaged was slightly swollen and was badly bruised. Kuno looked into Ranma's eyes unflinchingly. This was not going to be pleasant.  
  
He came forward and Soun and Genma parted so that he could sit. He did notice that they moved a bit further than necessary to accommodate him. He sighed.  
  
"Look," he began. He began a lot of sentences that way. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier, at breakfast and about what happened at school. You would not believe what's been going on." With that, he tried to tell the story that Daniel had told him, but he didn't get it quite right.  
  
Let me tell it, Daniel snapped.  
  
"What do you mean?" Ranma didn't know that he only had to think the thoughts for Daniel to hear him, and Daniel wasn't about to tell him. Let them think he's lost it. The others stared at him as he continued to have a conversation with no-one.  
  
Relax your will, your control and I'll take over to tell the story. You've botched some key details.  
  
"Uh, okay, I guess." He did as he was bid. He closed his eyes and relaxed his control over himself. He felt himself falling backwards, yet his body didn't move. He suddenly found himself sitting in the chair in Daniel's room. It was as comfortable as it looked. He looked around and saw that the view on the TV was the view through his eyes, and everything said was coming through the speakers.  
  
Ranma's body opened it's eyes, and everyone noticed that he wasn't the same. His eyes had changed, for one thing. They were again that deep brown that Kuno and Happosai had seen, but they weren't filled with a promise of a painful death this time. They looked around with as much apathy as Nabiki showed, but in Daniel/Ranma's case, it was real apathy and not feigned. The expression on the face was also different. He looked older, not as old as Genma or Happosai, but older than he usually looked. He also looked a lot harder, more cold than Ranma ever could.  
  
"I've asked Ranma to step aside so that I may tell my story," he said. He spoke in English and everyone looked dumbfounded. Happosai understood him, but that was because he had traveled the world several times in his life and had picked up a lot of different languages. Kuno caught a word or two, but only because he was passing his English class. English, he found, was a lot more difficult to understand without the accent.  
  
Daniel/Ranma looked at Happosai. "I know you can understand me, as I know the others cannot. Would you act as a translator?" He bowed his head at the old man, and Happosai found himself nodding. He explained to the others what Daniel had said.  
  
He frowned slightly as he collected his thoughts and then told, again, what he told Ranma in his room. The looks he got were ranged from wide-eyed wonder (Kasumi) to downright disbelief (Kuno). Nabiki looked at him calculatingly, while Soun and Genma looked at him perplexedly. Akane and Sansuke looked at him with skeptical expressions while Happosai had a thoughtful look on his face.  
  
"I guess this is the part of the story where the other players ask the new lead the questions that are burning in their minds," he said when he had finished and given them a few moments to let it sink in.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, do you honestly think we believe this utterly preposterous fabrication of yours?" That was Kuno for you, he never knew when to keep his mouth shut. Daniel's eyes went from apathetic to cold as ice. He stared at Kuno and Kuno was stupid enough not to back down.  
  
"You had best close your fool mouth, Tatewaki Kuno," Daniel said quietly. "I will not put up with your drivel. You are nothing but a spoiled child who insults the memory and honor the samurai you claim to emulate." Kuno didn't like that, not one bit. He stood up and brandished his bokken.  
  
"I will not be insulted by the likes of you, Ranma Saotome," he screamed.  
  
Daniel stood slowly, getting a feel for his new body. He stood shorter than the older boy, but he was more intimidating than Kuno could ever be. His stature belied nothing of his presence, the aura of malevolence that seeped around the edges of his control.  
  
"I am losing my patience with you, boy. Do not act rashly and I won't continue what was stopped before." Happosai continued to translate all of this, though he didn't know why. During the story the stranger had told, and even now, he kept smelling something foul coming from the window. It was faint, and sometimes disappeared on the breeze, but it was there nonetheless. He had smelled it before, but he couldn't place the memory, so engrossed was he in the unfolding events in front of him. Then it occurred to him where he had smelled that stench before.  
  
Daniel sensed the imp right before Happosai placed the smell. He lunged forward and snatched the bokken from Kuno's startled grasp. He turned and threw it like a spear through the open window. There was a small scream and spatter of black blood hit the window. Then came the sound of the bokken being dropped on the ground and leathery wings taking flight.  
  
"Damn," Daniel muttered. "Missed the fucker."  
  
*****  
  
Ickzil clutched it's destroyed shoulder as it flew towards the pastry shop. It blistered the air with curses in various languages, never once repeating itself. Blood dripped from between it's finger to spatter on the ground, leaving a nice little trail for anyone to follow, though it knew it's blood wouldn't last more than an hour. One small advantage to being something not truly alive on this mortal plane.  
  
The pastry shop loomed closer as it flew. It hoped it would make it. It was losing strength fast, thanks to that damned pig-tailed boy. It didn't understand half of what was said in the house, but it remember the words and it hoped it's demon lord would know. It just hoped it would live long enough to report in.  
  
Using the secret ways, it entered the summoning chamber where it's master waited. It had decided to use cunning and trickery where the truth would not quite work. It flew in and fell unceremoniously at the feet of it's master, spattering him with black ichors.  
  
The summoner looked down at the imp in amazement. He had never expected anything like this. He had never seen anything like this, nor read of it. He didn't think that the denizens of the netherworld could be hurt, except for the various runes and spells, in this day and age of non-belief.  
  
"Wh-what happened?" the summoner was unnerved by this.  
  
"Master, thy plans have been thwarted. Mine enemy knew of thy designs and intercepted me before I couldst gain the item of thy desire. They ambushed me using cold-wrote weapons and blades of slivered steel. Thy servant wasn't strong enough to defeat them." Ickzil barely suppressed his smile as he saw the anger and fear that plastered the face of the summoner. It saw more fear than anything else, though and that was a good thing.  
  
"Master, send thy servant back to it's home so that it may heal and recruit others that we may take vengeance for thee. Thou shalt have thy item, master, and those who hurt thy servant shalt surely pay!"  
  
That had the desired affect. The summoner immediately broke into an incantation. Soon, another rift in the fabric of that reality appeared and the imp crawled through. The rift closed and the summoner looked at the spot it once occupied. He had doubts now. He didn't know if ultimate power and immortality were worth the price of setting loose a demon hoard on the world.  
  
He shrugged away those doubts. Yes, it was worth it, he decided. Anything was worth it.  
  
*****  
  
There was a moment of stunned silence in the dining room as the shock of what just happened settled it. Once it was situated in everyone, they exploded with questions and demands. Daniel didn't respond to any of it, and neither did Happosai. They looked at each other and said not a word. No form of communication passed between them, they just stared and reassessed their opinions of each other.  
  
As the tumult of noise continued, Daniel got tired of it. He took a deep breath and yelled at everyone to shut up. They were immediately quiet, even Kuno sat back down, shaken.  
  
"Gods, I want a cigarette," he muttered to himself. He could feel Ranma screaming in the back of his mind, but he chose to ignore him. He would be useless in the conversation to come.  
  
"What just happened?" This came from Soun, who looked like he was about ready to cry. He cried a lot, Daniel noticed. Too much, in his opinion.  
  
Daniel sat back down and nodded his head to Happosai. Happosai was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "It was a demon," he said at length. Night was almost fully upon them and it seemed a good time to have this discussion. "I don't know why it was here, but this cannot bode well."  
  
"More specifically," Daniel said in the ensuing silence, "it was an imp."  
  
Happosai looked at him sharply. Suspicion was clearly evident on his wrinkled visage. "How do you know what kind of demon it was?" he demanded. His voice sounded older than usual. He looked older than usual. The events of the day have made him feel older than usual.  
  
"I've had some minor dealings with them," Daniel replied nonchalantly. "The summoning of an imp is not so difficult a matter and controlling one is a bit easier."  
  
"How would you know how to summon and control a demon?" Genma asked, alarmed. He had started to stand and even Kuno was glaring at him again.  
  
"I thought that was fairly self evident. I've summoned them before. What? Did you expect me to try to summon a celestial for aid? Feh. A celestial would do one of two things when they got near me. One, they'd attack me, or two, they'd run in fear. Oh, would you people stop glaring at me? I'm no more evil than Genma is."  
  
Genma started to splutter at that. He stood, red faced and took a menacing step towards the man that occupied his son's body. Daniel raised his hand and pointed one finger at Genma.  
  
"Not a step closer. Ever since I came to the fore, I've been insulted and threatened and I'm gettin' fuckin' sick of it. Now sit your ass down before I really start to get mad."  
  
To Happosai's eyes, the dark aura of rage had returned, but now it was a lot stronger. Daniel still had Ranma's finger pointed at Genma and Happosai saw the rage travel down his arm and start to coalesce at his fingertip. Even Genma could see it then, a small sphere of dark energy at the boy's fingertip. He blanched and sat back down, glaring at his son.  
  
Like a switch being shut off, the aura disappeared. Daniel brought his hand back down to his side and Happosai saw a small tremor in it, as if he was using too much of his hate. Maybe, Happosai thought, his hate is a finite source of energy and he weakens when he uses too much. It gave the old man much to ponder.  
  
"As I was saying before being interrupted," Daniel continued, "I'm no more evil than Genma, or Soun, or anyone else in this room, probably with the exception of Kasumi. Everyone in here is probably a thousand times more evil than she. Anyways, I needed information and summoning an imp was the most expedient way of getting it. I made no promises, nor did I sell my soul to a dark power. You may think it was a deplorable act, but it was nothing more than getting the information I needed. Hell, since I woke up here, I've been tempted to summon one to find out who brought me here and why, though I think the why is clouded even to the supernatural." He sighed. His voice was weary when he next spoke.  
  
"You wanted to know why he was here, well I can hazard a guess or two. I'd say he was here for information. That's why he tried so hard to mask his presence and demons aren't known for their patience, which is why he was at the window listening instead of waiting until later. I'd be willing to bet that I was the reason he was here, as well. Not to sound like an egotist, or anything, but with my anger, I stand out like a sore thumb around here. He'd had to have felt that and he was probably curious as to what I was. No doubt he was summoned for some other, unrelated thing. At least I hope so."  
  
By this point, he had slumped forward, and Kasumi and Akane looked at him, or rather at Ranma's body, with concern. To all appearances he was using pure will power to keep himself as upright as he was. Kuno continued to glare at him and Sansuke sat back with look of concentration, memorizing every detail of the conversation. Genma and Soun looked at him with mistrust and Happosai looked on with a thoughtful expression on his face. He had much to ponder, and he doubted he'd be getting any sleep tonight. Too much to think about. Nabiki, as usual, looked on him with pure calculation on her face. Yes, he did admire that about her.  
  
Daniel raised his head and looked at the assemblage. He noted all of the looks they gave him and noted that Kasumi's look was concern for him and Ranma and not just Ranma's body. "I'm going to go back to sleep now," he said. He sounded bone tired. "I am sorry to have caused such a disruption in your household, and I truly apologize for being here." He said this directly to Kasumi and she smiled slightly.  
  
"And Kuno, I am sorry to have ruined your bokken. It was a fine weapon that deserved better than to be ruined by the blood of an imp." Kuno's look softened just a little and Sansuke grinned. The little ninja was sharper than he looked.  
  
"I know it is no excuse for my own behavior," he said to the group as a whole, "but my temper gets an even shorter fuse when I'm tired. Please have some sympathy for me. I'm not from here and from out of nowhere I'm thrust into a world I barely know. It has not been the best of days for me. I think I'm about done for the day. Good night." His head dropped forward and almost immediately snapped back up.  
  
Ranma looked around. His eyes were his own color and bloodshot. He shook with exhaustion. Everyone was glad he was back, even Kuno.  
  
They sat around and discussed what had happened and what to do next. Kasumi rose during the discussion and fixed a quick dinner for everyone, which they gladly ate. They talked and talked for about two hours before Ranma had to leave or pass out again. He slowly made his way to his room and collapsed down onto his pallet. He was asleep before he had hit the ground.  
  
*****  
  
Daniel laughed when he got back to his room. He knew how to play a crowd pretty well. He eagerly watched what happened after he left on the TV and laughed all the more when he saw that he had actually swayed them a little. These next few days were going to be crucial. He had to keep a tighter reign on his temper than he usually did. That display with Genma could have cost him everything. He didn't even know he could focus his rage like that. His hate seemed to be a tangible thing here, but it also took it's toll on Ranma's body, which unfortunately was his body also.  
  
He briefly thought about teaching Ranma how to focus his hate, but then promptly disregarded the notion. He was much to good natured for that. It took a certain lack of good will to be able to build up that much hate, let alone use it.  
  
It was while he was thinking of this that he noticed that his computer table had materialized. Curious, he sat down at the chair and started exploring. Soon he realized what it really was. He now had access of all of Ranma's mind. Here were his memories, even the ones he couldn't remember were here. Here were his emotions. Here his hopes and dreams. He laughed at the sight. He could change everything about the boy from here, but he restrained himself. Ranma didn't trust him and if Ranma found himself feeling things that were natural to him, yet he'd never felt before, then he'd trust him even less.  
  
He realized that his computer was a two-edged sword. Not only did it give him total access to Ranma's brain, but it would give Ranma total access to Daniel's mind when he was in the fore. He'd have to do something about that.  
  
He bent over the keyboard and started typing away, putting password restriction on almost everything. He was pretty sure Ranma would never figure out the password, but better safe than sorry. He put password protection on the password protection. He didn't know if that was possible back home, but this wasn't home and functioned under similar, but totally different rules.  
  
He yawned and stretched when he finished. Maybe a little nap was in order. He thought he handled his first experience in the flesh of this reality fairly well. He wasn't attacked at least. That was a start. Plans had started to form in his mind, and he was hoping to implement them before too much longer. He grinned and sighed as he climbed into his bed. He chuckled unpleasantly to himself as sleep embraced him. 


	6. Part I Chapter 5: Sleepless Night

Chapter 5  
  
Sleepless Night  
  
She slept fitfully. The events of the past few hours had troubled gentle Kasumi greatly. She awoke several times during the night until she had finally decided what she needed was some warm milk. She stood and threw a robe on before leaving her room. No telling if anyone was up and about, and she didn't want to appear in anything improper, although her night gown was floor length and long sleeved.  
  
She made her way to and through the kitchen without the need of light. She knew every detail of that kitchen like it was her own body. She got the milk, a small pan and heated it in no time. She was going to return to her room with her cup when she heard something from the back porch.  
  
Slowly, half-fearful, she entered the living room and saw a small light coming from the porch. A candle was burning mournfully on the porch. It cast it's light defiantly, fearlessly fighting off the darkness of the night. The moon and stars were covered by thick clouds, so the candle had a lot of darkness to fight. She stepped onto the porch and saw Ranma sitting with his back against a column, facing the candle.  
  
"Ranma?" she asked quietly. "You should be asleep."  
  
"Ranma is asleep," he replied. He spoke Japanese with only a slight accent, although he spoke every word properly, with no hint of word shortening that Ranma usually used. He opened his eyes and Kasumi saw that they were brown. She took an involuntary step back.  
  
He let out a soft laugh and shook his head sadly. "I scare you," he said. There was remorse in his voice. He stood up slowly, almost painfully. He turned and walked away from her, into the back yard. He stood with his hands in his pockets and shoulders slumped, staring into the pool. It was a lonely sight, and it touched Kasumi in it's sincerity.  
  
She stepped off the porch and followed him out into the backyard. Slowly, she reached out to touch his shoulder. He flinched from her touch and she retracted her hand.  
  
"Do you know how it feels to be torn from everything you have ever known and thrust into a barely known world that is so similar to your own, yet completely different?" he asked quietly. She couldn't begin to guess at the pain he must be feeling. "A place where, because of how you were raised and how you ended up as an adult makes everyone who might have trusted you fear you instead? I've seen how you, and Akane, and Soun and the rest look at me. I know fear when I see it. I have seen too much of it. When Ranma and I talk, I can hear the anger and mistrust in his voice. Can you know how that feels?"  
  
She had no idea of how to respond. The pain, loneliness and depression she heard in his voice was almost palpable. She was a kind-hearted woman, and didn't like to see anything in pain. She reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and this time he didn't flinch away from it. His shoulder shook slightly under her hand and she could feel his ragged breathing.  
  
"I am a cold man," he said just as quietly as before, "but I feel pain just as much as the next man. Pain, loneliness, depression. I have felt them all in abundance. I am tired of it, Kasumi. Tired of it all. The hate, the loneliness, the depression, all of it. I want it to end, but I am not myself here. I am stuck in the body of a boy a decade younger than I really am. Would that I could end it, you know? Would it be better in the end or worse? These thoughts are my companion now, and I would rid myself of them if I could. But in this world, I cannot." He laughed bitterly and the pool rippled as a tear fell into it.  
  
She felt tears roll down her own cheeks. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and held him as he wept quietly. She didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. She did what she thought was needed. She stood there, holding him, rocking gently. Her cup of warm milk was forgotten, laying in the grass at her feet.  
  
"Thank you," he said and then sniffed loudly. He laughed weakly. "I guess I needed that." He turned to face her and she saw that there were still tears unshed in his eyes. He smiled tentatively and she returned it. She was glad she could help, though she really didn't do anything. He looked into her eyes and his smile slowly disappeared. He reached up and gently caressed her face. It was a gentle touch, but not one someone would give someone who was only a friend. He seemed to realize this as his eyes got wide and he stepped back, embarrassed.  
  
He coughed. "Uh, yeah. Anyways, I thought I'd get some meditation done. That's why I was here with the candle. Why are you awake?"  
  
She was blushing furiously and she looked away. The night air was cool against her heated face and she needed that.  
  
"I couldn't sleep," she said after a moment. "I thought some warm milk would help. Oh!" She suddenly realized that she didn't have her cup in her hand anymore and she looked around for it. She saw it and bent to retrieve it at the same time Daniel did. Their hands met over the cup and they both looked up. She gazed into those eyes, the eyes that looked completely different now than they did when they had first met earlier that day. She had the urge to reach out and touch his face as he had done hers, but she had to remind herself that this was Ranma's body, her sister's fiancé, but the urge was strong.  
  
She stood up quickly, the cup still laying on the ground. "I have to get back to bed," she said hurriedly. She took a step back. "Good night." She didn't want to be impolite. She turned and walked quickly back into the house. She rushed to her bed and climbed in, still in her robe. Her mind was awhirl with different and conflicting thoughts. Sleep did not visit her again that night.  
  
*****  
  
He admired the way her hips moved as he hurried into the house. She was a comely woman, he had to admit. He smiled. He deserved an Oscar for that performance. He couldn't believe he had actually managed to shed some tears. He hadn't cried in years, but he was able to dredge up the memory of how to fairly easily.  
  
He sighed as he ran the events that just happened again in his mind. He really had come out on the porch to meditate and try to reach some level of calm equilibrium, and he had always found that focusing on a candle had always helped before. He didn't expect anyone to wake up, and he definitely didn't expect it to be Kasumi, although he was glad it was. His plans had been set in motion earlier than he had wanted, but that couldn't be changed now. He told her the plain truth, though, and that always felt weird. He was unaccustomed to telling the whole truth. He was much used to half-truths and partial truths, and sometimes mostly-truths. He really was a cold, depressed, and lonely man, but that had never bothered him before. He had embellished a bit, and had added some self-pity to his voice, but the overall affect was just as he had desired. He had planted the seeds of chaos this night, and he hoped the fruit would be as delicate as he hoped.  
  
He sniffed the air. He could still smell her perfume. It was a pleasant smell, really. An odd idea occurred to him. Maybe he could kill off everyone who knew Ranma and then destroy the Ranma that was still in his mind during the confrontation of the great evil that was always the source of problems in these stories. Then, he could come back and stay with Kasumi. She was pretty enough and kind enough to need protecting, and he was good at that sort of thing. He pondered it for a moment, then promptly discarded the idea. He was not a fan of happy endings, and besides he had something to do first, after he got back home anyways, and whoever put him here would not be happy. Not happy at all.  
  
"Good night, Kasumi," he said, for anyone who might be listening and he had the feeling that someone was. He had added just enough uncertainty to his voice to lend credit to the whole notion that something might be budding between the two.  
  
He walked back to the porch and looked at the candle. He briefly considered trying to meditate again, but he was too tired. That nap hadn't been enough, he needed more sleep. He blew the candle out and the darkness rushed in to occupy the area where the light had been.  
  
*****  
  
Ickzil flew through the tangled, twisted forest of his master's home. His shoulder was healing rather nicely and a new arm had started to grow back. It was good to be home. He passed all sorts of demons as he flew, some that slithered, some that walked, some that flew and some that had a form of locomotion that there were no words for. The trees were stunted, twisted and diseased. The water, brackish, black and foul. It was good to be home.  
  
He flew through the forest, following the familiar path. He always took the same path. Even though demons were chaotic creatures, they were also creatures of habit, and taking this path was Ickzil's habit. He flew and flew, the distance always changed when traveling in the home realm of demons, very little was constant. Soon, he saw his master's citadel.  
  
It stood like the imploring hand of a drowning man in the middle of the blighted forest. It was made of the bleached white bones of countless creatures, as well as the sinew and tendons of said creatures. It was constantly being added upon, as more and more creatures died at the hands of the demon host and their corpses brought back for feast. Demons rarely wasted parts of a corpse. Ickzil guessed that if it were to be allowed to continue, the whole body that the hand belonged to would be made.  
  
The five finger-like towers stretched into the green tinted sky and dark flames erupted from them at random intervals. Those were the lord's machine shops and invention labs. Very few things actually came out of those five rooms, but the screams were nice. The towers leading to those rooms were where captives were kept, as well as guest, when they arrived and survived and didn't displease the lord overmuch. There were such enjoyments to be found in those towers. Every vice imaginable, and unimaginable were to be found there. Everything from sexual torture to the frigid death of an arctic winter. It was a paradise that Ickzil didn't like to leave.  
  
The imp entered at the base, or wrist of the citadel and flew through the twisted, random hallways until he came to the doors to his lord's private bedchambers. He knew his master was most likely here instead of the throne room. His master had a new mistress, a succubus named Lina, and from the whispers he heard, she was quite a good mistress.  
  
Ickzil didn't bother knocking, he just barged on in, and it just so happened that his lord was in there, as well as his new mistress. She straddled his lord and he could clearly see the pale, milky skin on her backside and back. Her blonde hair was sweaty and stuck to her back and shoulders as she leaned forward, her hands on his lord's chest. He could clearly see how her large, firm breasts bounced with each of his lord's thrusts. Unfortunately, for Ickzil anyways, his lord wasn't quite finished with his amusements when he burst in.  
  
His lord stopped in mid-thrust and turned his baleful gaze towards the imp. The imp immediately prostrated himself on the floor, groveling. His master was a large creature, when standing, he was over eight feet tall, with huge bat-like wings. His body was superbly muscled and his hands ended in long black talons. His face was a combination of an ape's and a lizard's, using the worst aspect of each. His body was covered with a fine layer of coarse, red hair and his muzzle was filled to the brim with sharp, jagged teeth. All in all, he was a very unappealing looking creature. Unless you were another demon, or a lust-driven succubus, that is.  
  
"Ickzil," the demon lord growled. It had a deep, but strangely cultured voice. "I do hope you have sufficient reason to barge in here while I'm entertaining a guest, hmm? If you do not, I'm afraid that when I'm done here, there won't be enough left of you to put in an atom smasher." He began, again, his rhythmic thrusting into the succubus, to which she readily reacted. The moans and screams she made almost drowned out the screams coming from the towers.  
  
"My lord," Ickzil began, "I did not meant to interrupt your pleasures. You know I would only disturb you with the utmost news, and even then it would have to be very important indeed." He was speaking the language of the demons, which, thankfully, didn't entail any of that "thee" and "thou" crap he had to put up with in the human tongues.  
  
"Yes, yes," his lord said, sounding quite bored with the intrusion, "get on with it, already. I am in the middle of something right now."  
  
"Yes, my lord. I found him!"  
  
The demon lord sat up straight, knocking the succubus over in his haste. He didn't notice. He looked at the imp which continued to try to press himself into the floor.  
  
"You what?" he demanded incredulously.  
  
"I found him, my lord," the imp repeated, mistaking the demon lord's surprise for anger. "I found the one who banished you from the mortal realm. I know where he is. I can lead you there. I have even found a summoner foolish enough to attempt it." Ickzil hoped he would live through this encounter.  
  
The demon lord swung his goat-like legs over the edge of the bed. He sat there, his member still erect and dripping, a thoughtful look on his face. The succubus, far from satiated reached around the lord and started caressing his chest, hoping to elicit more attention. He growled and casually reached behind him to engulf her head in one huge hand. She thought he was playing. He wasn't. The remains of her head splattered for quite a distance.  
  
"You have found a summoner who is stupid enough to summon the likes of I?" the lord asked the mewling imp.  
  
"Yes, master. He is proficient with the spells, but he is not too smart with his orders. He seeks immortality, and power." The imp unintentionally barked a small, contemptuous laugh. "What fool human does not?"  
  
"Very true, Ickzil my pet, very true. You have the means to contact him?"  
  
"No, master, but since I was injured by the followers of the one you seek, I told him to summon me again in one days time. I will be healed by then and I told him I'd have many demons to help slaughter his enemies. He is a foolish one, master."  
  
"No doubt he is," the lord's tone was distant. His thoughts were not totally with his servant. He was remembering a time when a master of the arts martial had banished him from his fun in the mortal realm. He was still very pissed about that, even though it had happened over a hundred years ago. "How is this summoner's circle set up? It binds you, but will it bind me?"  
  
"It will not master. It bound me, yes, but I am nothing compared to your might."  
  
"Enough sucking up, Ickzil. Give me the details of your time in the mortal realm."  
  
So Ickzil did. He told his master everything, including why he followed Ranma and what he learned before he was attacked. He was even stupid enough to tell him of the power he sensed in the one possessing Ranma, and he told him his theory of how strong that power was. After that, the succubus's arm wasn't attached to her body anymore and Ickzil was nursing a shattered face as well as a shattered shoulder.  
  
"You have done well, Ickzil. I am pleased. You may go and feed off the essence of one of my other servants to speed your healing. When it resist, use the rune of agony of it. You have my permission." The lord was well pleased indeed! It was not everyday, or hell even every century, when he allowed an imp to use the rune of agony, let alone feed off of another demon.  
  
Ickzil scampered out of the room, closing the door after him. The demon lord was newly excited by the news that in less than one mortal day he would extract his revenge on the man who had banished him. He looked at the corpse of the succubus and shrugged his large shoulders. She would be better this way anyways, he figured. She moved too much for his tastes alive. She'd be much more pliable now that she wasn't. He continued what he was doing when he was interrupted long into the night, and by our standards, it was not a pleasant act.  
  
*****  
  
Happosai sighed wearily as he stared at the cloud covered sky. He felt old, and he was bone tired. He had heard the conversation between Daniel and Kasumi and he knew trouble was brewing. He was old and cynical, but he knew what he heard, and what he heard didn't bode well for the rest of the family. If Daniel were trapped permanently in Ranma's body, then things would become even more complicated in Nerima.  
  
He sighed again and shook his head. Things were supposed to be simpler as one got older, not more and more entangled. He reached into his shirt and pulled out one of the few treasures he had managed to procure before the incident at the Furinkan. It was a padded, silky bra. He ran his hands all over it, not looking at it. They always made him feel better, his treasures. But now, though, they didn't bring the solace he had hoped they would.  
  
He dropped the bra and sighed for the third time. He moved his thoughts from their present, gloomy course to something more immediate. Like, how to arrange it so no-one killed each other with their new and unexpected visitor. There was definitely something dark about the man called Daniel. He didn't know quite what it was, but Happosai would keep his eyes open. He didn't know if he trusted the stranger or not, but he would need watching. He was too mercurial to be fully trusted, but after what he heard not long ago, he knew that he was also one who needed what support he could get in this place.  
  
He shook his head and gazed again at the cloudy sky. Patches of stars could be seen where some of the clouds had broken up, but he didn't hold much hope of tomorrow being a sunny day. He was too old for this kind of thing.  
  
*****  
  
The summoner awoke from a horrible dream, screaming and drenched in sweat. He shook uncontrollably for a moment, before where he was sunk in. He was in his own room above the pastry shop he had opened. He wiped a hand over his pale face and sighed raggedly as the dream began to break up in his mind.  
  
When the images were gone, he lay back down, hoping to sleep some more, but sleep was long in coming. He felt a sense of foreboding that he couldn't explain, and he didn't know from whence it came. It was there and wouldn't let him go until long into the night. The rest of his dreams were untroubled.  
  
*****  
  
Kuno couldn't sleep. The events of the day weighed heavily upon the young man. He stood in the dojo in his family's palatial house and practiced his swordsmanship. He was sweat drenched and exhausted, but still sleep was denied to him. His stomach hurt abysmally from where Saotome had hit him, and his back was sore from where he landed after said punch.  
  
He huffed and puffed as he exerted himself beyond the norm. He couldn't get the images of his beloved Akane cradling Ranma's head in her lap out of his head. He also couldn't get the face of the one called Daniel out of his mind, either. The look on his face was one that Kuno never wanted to see directed at him again. It was a look that should have been carved onto a samurai's face mask, it belonged on the face of an oni, or an akuma. It was a horrible face to have directed at him, and it scared him more than he'd ever admit to anyone, even to himself.  
  
So he practiced. He practiced to exhaust himself physically and mentally. He practiced so that maybe he could sleep. He practiced to forget.  
  
*****  
  
Ryoga looked up at the sign. How the hell had he ended up in Tokyo? He sighed and shouldered his umbrella. It would take him quite some time to get back to Nerima. He was resigned to the fact that he got lost easily, and he was resigned to the fact that the only way Akane enjoyed his presence was when he was P-chan. Not that he really liked being a pig, but it was better than nothing.  
  
He looked up at the sky and prayed to whatever god or spirit might be listening that it didn't rain. It would take him long enough to get back to Nerima at his usual pace, but as a small pig, it would take too long.  
  
*****  
  
Cologne looked at the sleeping form of her great-granddaughter. She slept soundly, though Cologne did not. The small woman had been distracted all day, since she felt the hate that started, grew and then disappeared all within the space of five minutes. It disturbed her, but she didn't know why. It wasn't directed towards her, or Shampoo, but it unsettled her nonetheless.  
  
She sighed and turned from the doorway and nearly ran into the kneecaps of Mousse. She glared up at the young man but he didn't notice. He was too busy crying. He stared at Shampoo and cried, and Cologne was tempted to break his knees for peeping on her granddaughter while she slept. Instead, she took her staff and cracked him over the head with it.  
  
He didn't make a sound, but grabbed his head and looked down at Cologne, seeing her there for the first time. He started to stammer out a response, but just gave up in favor of turning bright red and running for his own room.  
  
Stupid boy, Cologne thought as she closed the door to her granddaughter's room. She walked to her own room and left the door open a crack. She would make sure Mousse stayed in his room this time, if her mind wasn't so preoccupied. Sleep would be denied to her that night as her concerns and unanswered questions tumbled around in her mind.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma sleep was undisturbed, but it was not all that peaceful. He dreamed strange things of a strange world that was like his, but at the same time completely different. He dreamed of a midnight rendezvous with Kasumi, one that didn't end with her almost running back into the house. He dreamed of strange demons having sex with mutilated corpses. He dreamed of strange men having stranger dreams.  
  
He dreamed of many things, but would remember none of them in the morning.  
  
*****  
  
Daniel slept soundly in his room in Ranma's mind. His dreams were peaceful and uneventful. He seemed to be the only one of the major players who slept well that night, or any night thereafter. 


	7. Part II, Chapter 6: Dark Clouds

Part II  
  
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream  
  
To Dream, Perchance to Die  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Dark Clouds  
  
Ranma awoke well after when his father usually wakes him up. He sat up and groaned. His body felt like it had gone ten rounds with a semi and lost. He stood and made his way to the bathroom. It was unoccupied and he was quick to make use of that. He could clearly remember the events of the previous day and he remembered that though they talked a long time last night, nothing definite had been accomplished.  
  
He staggered down the stairs and saw that breakfast was almost over. He shuffled to the table and noticed that Kasumi gave him an odd look and then blushed. He shook his head, dismissing the look and any implications it might have. He saw that Happosai was not at the table, but he again dismissed the thought. All he could really think of was the food on the table, what little there was left. He sat down painfully, and dug in with more than his usual appetite.  
  
"How. You. Doin'. This. Mornin'. Son?" his father asked him between bites of food. His father wasn't one to let conversation interfere with food, or vice versa.  
  
"I'm doin' pretty good, Pop," Ranma replied after he had swallowed his mouthful. At least he was polite enough to say a full sentence between bites. "I'm sore as hell, though. Feel like I've been used as a practice dummy." His father grunted as Ranma continued eating.  
  
"And what about him?" This from Nabiki. Everyone knew which "him" she referred to. Kasumi blushed again, for some reason Ranma didn't feel like guessing at.  
  
"He's still asleep," Ranma said after a moment of thought. "I can barely hear him snoring." He looked around the table again, and saw that Akane was missing as well. "Hey, where's Akane?"  
  
"Kuno-baby escorted her to school this morning," Nabiki said, using her pet name for the idiot swordsman. "We decided that she should go to school to help support the story that you fell ill and are still ill. Besides, it's raining outside."  
  
Kuno took Akane to school. This thought would usually really piss Ranma off, but he had much bigger things on his mind at the moment, and he figured that Akane could take care of herself. He reapplied himself to eating until the bottomless pit in his stomach wasn't quite so bottomless.  
  
He sat back and sighed, content for the moment. A thoughtful look crossed his face.  
  
"Where's Happosai?" he asked. Genma and Soun had retired to the living room for a game of shougi, and Nabiki had gone to her room, probably to pick out which pictures of Akane she'd sell to Kuno. Kasumi had been steadfast in her avoidance of looking at Ranma until he spoke to her. She looked up, startled and blushed again. Ranma made a mental note to ask about that sometime later.  
  
"He left early this morning, before everyone woke up," Kasumi said quietly. She looked down at the table and continued. "He said he needed to look up some things at a monastery and said he'd be back by dinner time." She cleared the dishes off of the table quickly and hurried into the kitchen, a confused look on her face.  
  
Ranma shrugged away Kasumi's strange behavior and sighed. "Dammit," he muttered. "When I really want to talk to the old letch, he ain't here."  
  
*****  
  
The summoner awoke in a better mood than he had the last time. He looked around his cramped little room and smiled. Soon he would have absolute power and immortality. He chuckled to himself at the thought. He had much to do before he could summon the imp again and he had little time to do it in. He would need to reinforce his circle before the summoning, and he'd need a fitting gift for whatever the imp brought with it.  
  
He thought for a moment and an idea occurred to him that was just too delicious for him to pass up. He sprang from his bed and hurried through the pastry shop, which was already opened for business, and descended into his summoning chamber. Once there, he poured through his various tomes and compendiums until he found the incantation he wanted. He immediately went to work.  
  
An hour or so later, he was prepared. He raised his arms and started his chant. The chant was similar to the one he used to summon the imp, but it was subtly different. It was a summons, but it didn't summon a creature from the netherworld, instead it summoned a creature from a different plane of existence. The spell was used to summon a mirror shade, a creature that was neither dead or alive, but was something in between. Similar to zombies, but much better in their mode of transportation. Mirror shades could only be seen in, and travel through, mirrors. Thus the name. They were used mostly as assassins by those who want the deed done but don't want the trouble of doing it or getting caught because of it.  
  
He had the perfect gift in mind for his new fiend. A week or so ago, this uppity rich-bitch had come into his shop and told him, and everyone there that his éclairs tasted like pig droppings. It had hurt his reputation because she was a chit of importance around the area and he still nursed the grudge against her. He would kill two birds with one stone, or kill one bitch with two demons, as the case may be.  
  
The mirror shade appeared in the mirror the summoner had set in the circle. It was a roughly humanoid darkening in the reflection in the mirror, hardly detectible unless one was looking for it. He smiled viciously as he thought of the exquisite pain the girl would feel at the hands of the demons.  
  
"Go, and bring me Kodachi Kuno," he told the shade. "Bring me her alive and unharmed, and I will reward you with the soul of an innocent." If the shade could have looked eager, it would have. It was a rare thing for a mortal to offer so much for so little a task.  
  
The shade disappeared and the summoner smiled again. This was going to be a good day. He had the perfect innocent in mind, too. This boy had been working in the shop for two months now, and had botched every task he had been set to. And the boy was an orphan. It was almost as if fate had decreed that these things were to come together at the same time just for him to utilize in the realization of his dreams.  
  
*****  
  
Kodachi leaned forward to see her reflection better. Her makeup was a disaster after coming into the school in the rain. That useless idiot of a brother of hers had held the door and the umbrella for the tomboy, but not for her. The only one she had to rely on then was Sansuke, and he was much too short to keep the umbrella over her head while carrying her things. Sometimes he was useless, but he and her brother were all she had left of her parents. So she had to suffer as the rain ruined her makeup and her hair.  
  
She sighed in exasperation as she reapplied her lipstick. If this was how the day started, she dreaded to think of what the rest of it would be like. And her darling was at home sick! She would be there this very instant if Kuno hadn't forbade her from doing it. Not that she listened to her brother all that much, but he seemed strangely adamant about it this time, so she had decided to do as he said.  
  
The mirrors in the restrooms of the school was truly atrocious, but it was the best she could do. She couldn't very well reapply all of her makeup using nothing but the compact in her purse, now could she?  
  
And what was that thing in the mirror? Was it some sort of blemish in it? It was a darker spot in the mirror. She leaned closer to look at it better. It looked almost human-like.  
  
She didn't have a chance to scream as the mirror shade's arms snaked out of the mirror and yanked her in. No-one really missed Kodachi for quite some time and by the time they did, it was far, far too late.  
  
*****  
  
Sorosuke lay on the ground, unconscious, but unharmed. He would be perfect for the mirror shade. The summoner chuckled as he looked down on the boy. It would be fun to watch the shade play with him, but he didn't have time for such amusements right now. He paced around the room, waiting for the shade, when the mirror rang like a bell. It was the shade's way of saying it was there.  
  
He ran towards the circle just in time to see Kodachi come tumbling out of the mirror in a sobbing heap. Apparently, it was unpleasant to travel with a mirror shade through a mirror.  
  
Like the tinkling of glass shards, the mirror shade spoke. "My payment?"  
  
"Yes, yes," he grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and drug him towards the mirror. "You have done better than I expected, shade. If I should need you in the future, I would know your name so that I may summon you again."  
  
"Call the summons, and I shall come. Only I." The shade's arms reached out of the mirror and grabbed the boy. The shade bowed and disappeared. The boy was never seen in the mortal realm again.  
  
Kodachi was still sobbing and almost insensible when the summoner hauled her up and shackled her to the wall. She was kind of pretty, he had to admit, in a sadistic, "I get my way all the time" kind of way. He casually ripped her uniform off and violently yanked off her undergarments. These he threw into a nearby brazier, a new addition to his summoning chamber. It often got damp in there and a brazier kept the dampness at bay better than the torches.  
  
She still sobbed as the summoner looked her up and down. He liked what he saw, and he debated on whether or not he had the time to indulge in a little amusement before he had to prepare for the summoning of Ickzil and it's allies. Her crying was distracting, and rather unappealing, though. He reached out a hand casually backhanded her across the mouth. Her head rocked back and she snapped an angry glare at her jailor.  
  
"Ah, are we coherent now?" he asked her in heavily accented Japanese.  
  
"Let me down," she demanded. She didn't seem to realize the predicament she was in.  
  
He seemed to think about it for a moment before saying no. She didn't take that too well. She was still screaming insults and threats at the man five minutes later when he got tired of it. Another backhand rocked her head. A small trickle of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth. She growled at him. All of this interaction had killed any desire for her he might have harbored. He just hoped that the demons Ickzil brought with it liked their gift spirited.  
  
He placed a screen in front of her and went to work on strengthening his circle. It would need all of the added strength he could give it to bind more than one or two demons to his will.  
  
*****  
  
Happosai looked up at the gates to the monastery. It was a few miles outside of Nerima and barely anyone knew of it. It was one of the monasteries that had become lost to time, one of those places where the past still lived in the present. He could feel the weight of the ages in it's stones and wood. It was almost like coming home after being away for awhile. He could feels the tranquility of the place, even outside of it's large wooden doors.  
  
This was a place of peace and serenity, a place where no violence had ever been perpetrated and it was unlikely that any would ever be. It was almost the personification of peace. The monks who lived here rarely spoke, though they didn't take a vow of silence. They just chose not to disturb the peace with unnecessary noise. He could appreciate that.  
  
He pushed on the large doors and they swung inward on well oiled, silent hinges. The courtyard of the monastery was silent and large. It had everything one would expect from a monastery, a rock garden, a small tranquil fountain, some trees and a few other miscellaneous things. Happosai ignored these things as he made his way towards the monastery proper. He nodded to the few monks he saw, and they nodded back, ignoring his presence. They were used to the unexpected appearance of strangers within their walls. It took a lot to startle these monks.  
  
Inside the main building, Happosai made his way towards the library. This monastery boasted one of the best libraries in the world, well, it would boast it if more than a handful of non-monks knew about it. The library took up most of the first floor, and was stacked from floor to ceiling with bookshelves containing books of all shapes, sizes and languages. It was a treasure trove to the knowledge hunters, but it was also unorganized. He sighed as he realized the scope of the task before him, but he didn't let that deter him. He needed to find some clue and this was as good a place as any he could think of. He dropped his pack and started his monumental task.  
  
*****  
  
Ranma stood in the dojo of the Tendo house, exercising slowly to relieve his body of it's soreness and stiffness. It was a long process. He had been in the dojo for a couple of hours, trying to make himself feel a bit better, and he did, a little anyways. He couldn't really concentrate on the exercise because his mind kept coming back to the fact that he had a strange man stuck in his head. A man he couldn't even come close to trusting, on top of that. He tried to think of various ways to get him out of his head, but nothing short of cracking his skull with a big rock seemed like a good way.  
  
He sighed as he slowly worked the kinks out of his body. His legs were in better shape now, and he was working on his back when Nabiki came into the dojo. She stood in the doorway and watched him work. He didn't know why, and at this point in time, he couldn't have cared less. It seemed like his world was falling down around him. It was not a pleasant thought.  
  
He hated to admit it, but he honestly wanted to talk to Happosai. He's seen things that were stranger than this. He had to have some idea of what to do. But no, the old lech had run off to some monastery. He probably ran off to torment some young ladies and steal their underwear.  
  
He looked up and saw that Nabiki wasn't in the doorway anymore. He shrugged and continued to stretch and warm up his muscles. It was a boring thing to do, but he really didn't have anything else to do.  
  
You could go read a book, Daniel said. Ranma jumped.  
  
"I thought you were still asleep," he said. It felt strange to talk to himself and get answers that weren't his.  
  
I was until about five minutes ago, came Daniel's slightly groggy response. You think you've got nothing better to do than work the kinks out, but you could always go and read a book. I would recommend some authors, but I don't know if their works have been translated into Japanese.  
  
"Thanks, but I'm not much of a reader."  
  
So I've noticed. All you really like doing is fighting, don't' you?  
  
"I like doing other things, it's just that I'm good at fighting. I don't know if I like to do it, it's just what I'm good at."  
  
You should become good at doing other things. You definitely need to work on your people skills. They are sorely lacking.  
  
"What do ya mean by that?" Already his guest was starting to annoy Ranma.  
  
I mean that you are too abrupt and short with people. You don't take the time to try to win them to your side, or give them a chance to form cohesive responses to your monosyllabic queries and you need to start thinking before you speak. Your rashness in conversation is one of the main reasons you end up in so much trouble with Akane. She's fairly smart and knows pretty well when your lying or being evasive, neither of which your good at.  
  
Ranma looked at the wall of the dojo, completely at a loss. He didn't know why what the man said should have hit him like it did, but he was almost stunned. He knew he was rash when it came to talking and that he very, very rarely thought before he spoke. He also knew that it was a never-ending source of contention between him and Akane. He knew all of this, but to have it put to bluntly to him made it all the more clear.  
  
"I just ain't good at stoppin' and thinkin'," he said to the floor.  
  
I know, but I am. I can help you in this department, if you want. I ask for nothing in return, well I take that back. There is one thing I'd like.  
  
Immediately Ranma was suspicious. "Yeah? What's that?"  
  
I want one of those okonomiyaki that I've read so much about.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Yeah. I am willing to help you reign in your rashness if you'll get me one of those okonomiyaki. I think it's a pretty simple and easy request. And a bargain, as well.  
  
"Wait. Okay, let me get this straight. You are going to help me just for one of Ucchan's specialties?"  
  
That pretty much sums it up, yeah.  
  
Ranma laughed. It was the first real laugh he'd had in what seemed like years. "Okay," he said. "You've got a deal."  
  
Good then. Ranma could hear the smile in his voice, but he didn't know that it wasn't a pleasant smile. Not a pleasant smile at all.  
  
*****  
  
Nabiki sat in her room and thought. There had to be a way to make this profitable, she thought. She was the reason that the Tendo family ate, or had a place to sleep, or any of that. She was the source of money for the family and because she took on such a responsibility, she had to become harder to the world. Unfortunately, for her, it was mostly a façade.  
  
This Daniel intrigued her, she had to admit. The callous way he dealt with people and then swayed them back towards him had impressed Nabiki. She could do that same thing, to a smaller degree and she'd like to be able to do it better. He also scared her, she had to admit as well. The way he went from calm and cool to willing to kill someone in the blink of any eye was too much for her.  
  
He would need watching, she decided. Both of them, Ranma and Daniel. There were just too many opportunities for trouble with Ranma, but if you added Daniel's volatility to the mix, then a normally dangerous situation becomes deadly real quick.  
  
She sighed and picked through the latest batch of Akane pictures. She'd have to pick just the right ones if she wanted to demand the price she wanted from Kuno-baby.  
  
*****  
  
He saw her standing near a window, looking at how the rain disrupted the puddles. He crossed the lunchroom, waving away his usual sycophants in the process, to stand behind her. She didn't seem to notice. He supposed her mind was still dwelling on what happened last night. Heaven knows that his is. He was about to speak when the sound of Akane's name being called caused her to turn and notice him for the first time. Instead of the look of annoyance she usually gave him, she smiled up at him with gratitude. He wasn't quite sure why.  
  
He turned toward the direction her name had been called and saw Ukyou coming across the lunch room, much the same way he had. He backed off a step or two as Ukyou approached Akane. They started talking, Ukyou asking about Ranma and Akane telling the story she was told to tell. He could tell she wanted to tell the other girl the truth, but she knew better. Ukyou kept glancing at him at strangely. He supposed it was because he looked like he hadn't slept, which he hadn't.  
  
He heard someone call his name and he turned to see one of his sycophants rushing towards him. He sighed wearily. He didn't want to deal with them today, but it seemed as though he had no choice. The younger boy came up to him red faced and breathing heavily.  
  
"Kuno-san," he said breathlessly. Kuno looked at him, he didn't say anything, he just looked. The younger boy paused a moment to regain his breath.  
  
"Kuno-san, your sister," he began attain. Kuno rolled his eyes. Who had Kodachi almost killed this time, and how much would it cost to keep it quiet, he wondered. "Your sister is missing."  
  
He stared at the younger boy for a long time, the meaning of his words not quite sinking in. Finally, after an indeterminate amount of time, he spoke.  
  
"My sister, what?" He sounded distant, as if not fully there or fully awake.  
  
"Your sister has disappeared. They found all of her things in the women's room near the front doors. They also found one of her shoes in front of the sink, and that's it. We've searched the school for you, but we haven't found her."  
  
Slowly, ever so slowly, it sunk into Kuno's head what the younger boy was saying. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Akane's sympathetic face. Tears stood unshed in her eyes. He smiled wanly at her and then burst into motion, running for the doors to the lunchroom.  
  
*****  
  
The doorway to the women's room was taped off and there were police standing around it, keeping the other student's at bay. He stood in front of the tape and he felt his skin crawl. It was a strange sensation, feeling one's skin crawl for no apparent reason. Well, there was plenty of reason, but none that would make his skin crawl. He guessed that if he had seen the interior of the women's room, he might have had ample reason, but he couldn't so he didn't.  
  
He was in shock when he saw a policeman bringing his sister's shoe out of the lavatory in a plastic bag marked "evidence". He couldn't function, although an officer was asking him questions, since one of the other students pointed him out as being Kodachi's brother. The questions meant nothing to him, but he knew he had to answer them. It was just too bad that he had forgotten how to speak. The officer seemed to understand this, and sympathize somewhat, as he stopped asking questions and went away.  
  
He felt a hand on each of his shoulders and he saw Akane on his right and Ukyou on his left. He was comforted by their presence, although they didn't get rid of the shock. They started pulling him away from the tape and the police and the source of the odd skin crawling sensation he had been feeling. He didn't know where they were going, and surprisingly, he didn't care.  
  
*****  
  
Cologne looked up as the bell above the door rang. Her expression was cross until she saw who it was and the expressions on their faces. Akane, Ukyou and Kuno walked in, all drenched from the short distance from the curb to the doorway. They all had somber expressions on their faces and Kuno's face had a disturbing vacant look on it that made Cologne think of someone who's mind wasn't there anymore.  
  
She jumped off the counter and hurried to them, carrying towels she had grabbed from behind the counter. She handed the towels to them and led them to a table without a word. The Nekohanten was closed for the day, so no-one else was in. She had sent Mousse and Shampoo out on errands and didn't expect them for awhile.  
  
After they were situated, she ran back into the kitchen to start a kettle for tea. She returned to the table with some small sandwiches she had hurriedly whipped up. She stood on her staff and watched as they ate listlessly and without speaking, although Akane and Ukyou had given her grateful expressions for the sandwiches.  
  
"Okay," Cologne said after they had eaten and she had brought the tea out. "What's wrong?"  
  
Akane and Ukyou looked at each other and Akane nodded. Kuno sat there, staring at nothing. Slowly, Akane told her of what happened over the last few hours, and surprisingly, she found herself telling the old woman what had happened yesterday, all of it and not just the cover story. Ukyou's eyes got wide when the truth came out and she had a slightly hurt expression on her face as Akane told the whole truth.  
  
"Son-in-law is possessed?" Cologne demanded. She knew that intense hatred she had felt the day before had been a completely bad thing.  
  
"Well, sorta," Akane said slowly. "From what he said, Daniel was put into Ranma's head as a punishment for something. I get the feeling he doesn't like any of us, but he seems to respect Kasumi and Nabiki. Except for the whole thing with Genma, Kuno and the imp, he was polite and civil, but it was obvious he trying to hold onto his patience."  
  
"I want to meet this Daniel," Cologne said after a moment of silence. "I think I need to speak with him." Ukyou voiced her agreement, although hers was slightly more forceful and she cut her eyes spitefully at Akane.  
  
"He scares me, Cologne," Akane said in a small voice. "He scares me worse than anything I've ever experienced." She shuddered at the memory of having those eyes, like twin pools of seething rage, pointed at her.  
  
She looked at Kuno, who had contributed nothing to the conversation. He still had that vacant, there/not there look on his face. "Call him and have him come here," she said to Akane. "Use the phone in the back."  
  
After Akane left, Cologne turned her eyes on Ukyou. She seemed to be trying to digest what had been told to them, and she was trying to deal with what she saw as a betrayal of trust. The old woman laid her hand on top of the younger woman's.  
  
"Do not let it bother you," Cologne said softly. "You were deceived for a reason, and do not doubt she would have tried to lie to me, as well, if she weren't so distressed." Ukyou nodded and smiled wanly. Akane came back in and joined them shortly thereafter.  
  
"He's on his way." 


	8. Part II, Chapter 7: Defender Instincts

Chapter 7  
Defender Instincts  
  
  
"Shit," he muttered after he had hung up the phone. This was not going to be a good day.  
  
So, the plot quickens, Daniel said in his mind.  
  
"What?"  
  
Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.  
"Whatever," Ranma said suspiciously. He still far from trusted the entity named Daniel who now resided in his mind, even after the understanding they had come to. They now had a very business-like relationship. What Daniel could do for Ranma, he would for permission to come to the fore and use Ranma's body when he wanted, as long as it wasn't in an inappropriate moment. And, to hear him tell it, Daniel could do a lot for Ranma.   
  
This is not the time to have dissention among the ranks, Daniel said matter of factly. We need to be as one in the days to come. There will be many trials and besides, I thought you hated Kodachi anyways.  
  
"That's besides the point," Ranma said heatedly. He really hated how Daniel seemed to know too much about him and the goings on in his life.  
  
Well, most of the major players have been introduced. Let's see, who are we missing? Ryoga probably. He'll be along shortly, if I'm not mistaken. These things always go this way.  
  
"How do you know that?" Ramna's suspicion had returned a hundred fold. "And why d'ya keep talkin' like you've read this or somethin'?"  
  
Trust me, my not so willing friend, you would not believe me if I told you. He sighed wearily. Why here of all places? Why here and why in your head, and not in my own flesh? Ranma could hear him shake off the momentary maudlin. No sense bemoaning that which cannot be changed. Let's get to the Nekohanten and see what the old bat wants.  
  
  
*****  
  
The Nekohanten was dark when she arrived. It's doors were closed and it's windows were all darkened except for a single light that came from the back of the common room. The door opened easily at Ranma's touch and she hurried inside out of the rain. What had started out as a simple, easy going rain had turned into a full blown storm and she was not happy about it.  
  
She shook the water out of her hair as she crossed the room to the kitchen. Sitting around a small table in the back were Cologne, Akane and Ukyou . They're eyes bored into Ranma as she entered and immediately he was defensive.  
  
"What?" she demanded crossly.  
  
Akane pointed behind them and Ranma saw a tea kettle on the stove. Steam was issuing from the spout and she gladly used the scalding liquid to become male again. He dried himself off and sat the table.  
  
"Okay, tell me what happened." Akane and Ukyou related what had happened at the school that morning and Cologne kept staring at him. He ignored the old crone's eyes and concentrated on the story. When they had finished, Daniel started chuckling.  
  
"What's so funny?" he demanded. Cologne's eyebrows arched slightly and Ukyou looked at him strangely.  
  
Someone knows some tricks, Daniel replied. Well, more than tricks if my suspicions are correct.  
  
"What are you talking about?" He was losing his temper again. Before he could get an answer, he found himself sitting in Daniel's chair watching the television. Ukyou started when she saw Ranma's eyes change color and his expression change. Cologne merely narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Tell me every minute detail of the women's room," Daniel requested. It wasn't so much a request as a command, but they didn't much pay attention to it. They started telling the story again, and he kept asking questions, which resulted in the girls remembering more details from the scene. Cologne's face grew a little more wrinkled and lined as the story finished.  
  
"You know what it was," Daniel said to the old woman.  
  
"What do you know of such things?" she asked quietly. The suspicion that entered her mind as details of the feelings and sounds were revealed did not bode well for anyone, least of all Kodachi.  
  
He smiled a small cold smile. "I know more than you want me to, old woman, and less than you fear. What I know is neither here nor there. What you know is what's important now."  
  
She looked at him coldly, and he returned the look tenfold. Ukyou and Akane looked back and forth between the two of them, at a loss as to what was going on. Finally, Cologne looked down at the table.   
  
Daniel snorted and reached for his chest. He stopped when he remembered that he was not in his own body, and he was not wearing one of his typical shirts with a breast pocked. He clenched his fist and growled. The others looked at him sharply, and he shrugged.  
  
"I really want a cigarette," he said by way of explanation. "The addiction is purely psychological now, but it's still there." He waved away his craving and again looked at Cologne. "Are you going to tell them, or should I?"  
  
"I will tell them," she snapped. She cleared her throat and looked at the two young women gravely. "It sounds like it was a creature called a mirror shade." She got blank looks from Akane and Ukyou, as they didn't understand the importance of the name. Daniel nodded, and frowned, deep in thought.  
  
"What's a mirror shade?" Ukyou asked.  
  
"It is a creature that lives between this world and another," Daniel said before Cologne could answer. "It dwells in the place between images in a reflection. In that one heartbeat between images in a mirror, you can glimpse the world of the mirror shade. It is a place of terrible beauty, where our image reality is warped and twisted like light through water. Summoning one is not so difficult, but getting one to do your bidding is another thing entirely. The summoner must have offered it something valuable indeed. The simple fact that the summoner knew enough to summon one is bad enough, but that he had something the shade wanted enough to do something like this abduction is quite," he paused, "ingenious, actually."  
  
That did not go over well with the three of his listeners. Cologne kept silent as the young women started verbally abusing Daniel. They asked how he could be so mean to say something like that, and whatnot. He pretty much ignored them. Cologne, though, wondered how he knew so much of them, and where he found that information in the first place.  
  
Daniel was staring off into space as the two continued their tirade. His eyes were unfocused, and a looked of confused contemplation crossed his face. He pondered something for a moment, then shrugged and looked at Akane and Ukyou. They had paused long enough to catch their breath, but they were ready to start in again.  
  
"Oh, I am sorry," he said. "Were you two saying something? I was not listening." His grammatically perfect grasp of Japanese lessened the sting of his comment somewhat, but it still had the same affect he wanted. Akane looked like she was ready to throttle him, and Ukyou's hands were twitching for her battle spatula. Cologne, though, surprised them all, then. She laughed. Even Ranma, locked away in Daniel's room, laughed at Akane's and Ukyou's expressions.  
  
Further conversation was interrupted when the front door opened and a duck with a small cat on it's back waddled in. The duck was dragging a white bundle that clanked loudly, and the cat seemed to be flexing it's claws frantically into the duck's back. The oddest part, though, was that the duck was wearing very, very thick glasses. Ranma started gibbering in terror when he saw the cat, and Daniel turned the TV off.  
  
Cologne clucked disapprovingly and headed for the kitchen. She came back out with the still steaming tea kettle. She pour the water over the duck, and Daniel stood up to watch intently for any sign of the actual transformation. There was none, he found out. The transformation either happened in a nanosecond, or there was no actual transformation. Between one eye blink and the next, the duck was gone and a nude Mousse appeared.  
  
He hurriedly got dressed, took the kettle and went to pour the water on the cat. Unfortunately, the cat had other ideas. The cat had spied Akane shortly before Mousse's transformation, and had immediately gotten pissed. It laid it's ears back, and got low to the ground, hissing. When Mousse went to pour the water on it, it leapt through the air directly at Akane.  
  
Ranma's instincts and Daniel's took over. As the cat neared Akane, Daniel's hand shot out towards the cat. His intent was to grab it's head and break it's neck, but Ranma knew it was only Shampoo, and so Daniel's hand missed it's intended mark. Instead of it's head, he grabbed it's left foreleg. He immediately broke that leg in a couple of places, and threw the cat at the nearest wall, where it broke another leg. The cat fell to the ground with a soft thump.  
  
All of it took place in the space of a few seconds, but the four spectators, trained martial artists all, followed it from it's beginning to it's end. Cologne started trembling in rage. Akane stared at Daniel as if he'd grown a second head. Ukyou sat there, stunned. Daniel stood there looking rather miffed that he hadn't killed the cat. Mousse, though, Mousse was the wild card. Daniel knew he'd go in one of two directions. Either violence, or he'd collapse in a blubbering heap.  
  
"SHAMPOO!" Mousse screamed into the silence. He stood there, looking at the cat lying so very still on the ground. He turned his gaze on Daniel, and his expression hardened, became angry, almost hate-filled.   
  
Daniel, again thanks to Ranma's "protect innocence" instinct, kicked the table over behind him, knocking Akane and Ukyou over. Knives thudded into the table that was between the girls and Mousse. The girls looked at the tips of the knives and knew that things had gone from horrible to deadly.   
  
Daniel looked down at the knife that was stuck into his forearm curiously. It hurt, to be sure, but the pain was disconnected from him. It was abstract, there but not truly there. It had to be because it was not truly his body that had gotten wounded, he figured. It was a useful piece of information. It would definitely make fighting a lot more interesting knowing that he wouldn't feel the pain of the injuries, but on the other hand, he would have to be more careful. He didn't want to find out what would happen if Ranma's body died while he was still in it.  
  
He pulled the knife from his arm and tossed it over the table behind him. He grinned viciously at Mousse and charged. Mousse used the flowing, baggy sleeves of his outfit to good affect. He parried and redirected several of Daniel's attacks using those sleeves, but since it was Daniel fighting and not Ranma, the attacks weren't that good to begin with.   
  
They went back and forth for a bit, trading and blocking blows from hands and feet before Mousse remembered that he had weapons. He jumped back and pulled from his sleeves a pair of straight bladed swords. Daniel was in a low defensive crouch, and he gave Mousse his most insane grin. It was a grin that had scared most normal people, but in Nerima, no one was normal.  
  
Mousse came at Daniel, weaving his swords in a mesmerizing and beautiful pattern designed to mislead his opponent, but he had watched enough kung-fu movies, and had spoken with enough martial artists to know what to look at on his opponent's body. But, just because Daniel knew what to look at, didn't mean he knew what he was seeing. He turned the TV back on in his room, and Ranma watched Mousse's approach.  
Left sword mid first and right sword high second with left foot forward and right slightly behind, Ranma screamed, and he knew what to do to counter.  
  
Daniel spun low to the ground with his leg out and swept Mousse's feet out from under him. Daniel was on him in a flash, pummeling him, but Mousse was not to be underestimated. He maneuvered his legs so that he could get some leverage, and used that to hurl Daniel off of him. Mousse stood and again reached into his sleeves. This time, though, he brought forth a length of chain with a weight at the end.   
  
If you stay at a distance, he's gonna knock the crap outta you, Ranma screamed.  
  
Daniel ducked under Mousse's first swing and ran in fast, delivering a brutal blow to Mousse's ribs. He quickly followed it with another, and then another. On the third hit, he could clearly hear some ribs crack. He stayed low during those three punches, and Mousse rapped his arms around Daniel's ribs, forcing his head down under Mousse's arm.   
  
Daniel didn't want that. He raised his knee and brought it full force into Mousse's groin. The blow staggered him, and he took advantage of it by leveling another brutal punch to Mousse's cracked ribs. Under that hit, they broke. Mousse screamed and staggered back, but Daniel was relentless. He followed the Chinese boy, raining blow after blow in rapid succession from every conceivable angle. He made sure to slam those broken ribs every third hit. Daniel got up close and smashed his forehead into Mousse's nose, shattering it and covering both of their faces with blood.  
  
Mousse fell to the floor as consciousness left him, but Daniel wouldn't let up. He started kicking the boy as he lay there, defenseless. Akane and Ukyou came out from behind the table and saw the spectacle of Daniel, with blood covering most of his exposed skin, standing over the bloody and beaten body of Mousse. The boy's chest heaved raggedly, assuring them that he was still alive. Cologne sat next to the now human body of Shampoo, cradling the young woman's head in her lap. One of Shampoo's arms, and one of her legs had a two or three new joints in them, but she was definitely still alive.   
  
"You can thank Ranma that she still lives," Daniel said to the old woman. She turned her head and leveled a baleful stare at him. He shrugged.  
  
"When she awakens," he went on, wiping his face with a table cloth, "tell her that the next time she attacks Akane, or Ukyou, that Ranma will not stop me from killing her. And tell Mousse that next time he attacks me, I will not be so kind."  
  
He wiped off the rest of the blood, as best he could, and then remembered that he was injured in the fight. He also noted that he had some other injuries besides the knife wound. He shook his head and sighed.  
  
"I will go and have Kasumi look at these," he said, "and then Ranma and I must have another talk. He is screaming bloody murder right now, and it is terribly distracting." He bowed to Akane and Ukyou before he left.  
  
Akane, Ukyou and Cologne stared after him. Cologne snapped the young women out of their states of semi-shock and had them clean Mousse up as best they could. She left the room to call for an ambulance and Akane and Ukyou shared a long look. Ukyou finally understood what Akane had meant when she said that Daniel had scared her.  
  
They were both skilled fighters, and both of them had faced many strange opponents, but neither of them had ever seen anything like this before. To best an opponent was one thing, but to beat someone almost to death, that was completely different. With Daniel's disregard for human life, and Ranma's fighting skill, they were definitely something to be feared. 


End file.
